on the road less travelled in Ireland and france

By Conal Healy

It was The Big Trip. Around the world in 90-ish days. We left Australia in November 2006. It would be February 2007 before I returned to my office desk.

At the time I was working for a newspaper here in Australia. In those days, I got six weeks holiday every year. I’d worked for the company for nearly 20 years so I had accumulated a chunk of long service leave.

With that in mind, my wife Anna and I decided it was time to have a Christmas in Ireland and take the two kids with us.

We were taking the long way to Ireland, stopping in California, then Boston, drive to New Jersey/New York, then fly to Ireland with side trips to Paris, Salzburgand Brussels before the long haul for a Hong Kong stopover and then back to Brisbane.

The round-the-world trip was also partly to show our Teenage Daughter how great the world is, and for both children (including Mr Six Year Old) to meet the Irish side of our families. (We had left for Australia in 1988. This would be our first family holiday to Ireland.)

We had booked flights from Dublin to Paris with the budget airline, Ryanair. At the time, Ryanair was developing a reputation for cheap flights but could improve their customer service.

It was January, it was the low season, the flight was only two hours long … how bad could it be?

Now seasoned travellers (ie we packed light), we checked and waited for the flight to be called. Nobody had been allocated seats on the flight so Mr Six Year Old was tasked with slipping down the aisle, past any other passenger and grab four seat … and let nobody take them.

Luckily my days as a rugby union second-row forward prepared me for the Boarding Scrum as an air hostess called the flight and the crowd of holidaymakers surged forward to the airbridge.

Slippery Mr Six Year Old went ahead. I cleared a path, elbowing my way through the scrum. Mr Six Year Old got a window seat! Bargain! And the four of us settled it economy cattle class.

Regular travelers know Paris as two major airport Charles de Gaulle and Orly. For Ryanair, a Paris airport meant Beauvais. This is a regional airport, close-ish to Paris. After a two-hour flight from Dublin there was an hour long bus trip to Paris itself.

My sister welcomed us. We got to the hotel and settled in.

We the kids in tow we toured the top sights of Paris. Mr Six Year Old got to climb the Eiffel Tower. Teenage Daughter was propositioned outside the Notre Dame while we were on an early evening family walk.

In January, Paris was fairly free of the tourist hordes. The high point of the trip was a visit to the Musée d’Orsay, which was comparatively empty.

The return flight to Dublin was something of an adventure. A storm forced the closure of Beauvais Airport, so the flight was moved to Lille (near the Belgium border). The high winds buffeted the plane on take off. When we landed in Dublin, everybody clapped. It was that kind of flight.

PS: After our return to Australia, Teenage Daughter announced her plan to return to Europe to travel. And was now determined to learned Italian. Travel does broaden the mind.